Balagan and Magic Lantern Cinema Present:
Ship to Shore
Experimental land- and seascape documentaries by Peter Hutton and James Benning
Two outdoor film events:
Friday, August 24th, 20h
Norman B. Leventhal Park, Post Office Square, Downtown Boston
Saturday, August 25th, 20h
Grant’s Block, 260 Westminster St., Downtown Providence
Balagan and Magic Lantern Cinema have collaborated to present a pair of outdoor film events on consecutive nights in Boston and Providence under the banner “Ship to Shore,” evoking the seafaring histories of their respective cities. Each screening will present one feature film and one short film by acclaimed experimental filmmakers Peter Hutton and James Benning – two artists who share a similarly contemplative approach to place-based documentary film practice while still retaining strikingly original styles of filmic analysis and expression. A former merchant seaman, Hutton has documented four decades of voyages through such places as the Yangtze River, the coastline of northern Iceland, and the Hudson River Valley in his majestically photographed films, which merge observational and diaristic modes of narration, and whose reverent depictions of landscape have been compared to the work of Thomas Cole and the nineteenth-century Luminist painters. Benning has been producing meditative portraits of the American landscape for as many years, creating works that blend rigorous formal concerns with a deep investment in national politics, local histories, and the environment. Along with receiving a host of awards and critical accolades, Hutton’s and Benning’s films have screened at highly prestigious festivals and institutions throughout the world, such as the Vienna International Film Festival, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Tate Modern in London.
“Ship to Shore” will pair two of Hutton’s portraits of water bodies with two of Benning’s landscape films. One work by each artist will be screened each night. The first of these screenings, which will occur in Boston on August 24th, will include Benning’s early, rarely-exhibited short 9/1/75 alongside Hutton’s recent feature At Sea. While 9/1/75 is comprised of a single, twenty-two minute tracking shot Benning made at a Wisconsin campground on Labor Day, At Sea explores the staggeringly complex terrain of global commerce through the lens of a single merchant ship. The second screening, which will be in Providence on August 25th, will present Hutton’s Study of a River, a two year portrait of New York’s Hudson River in wintertime, alongside Benning’s Deseret, a hauntingly beautiful investigation of the landscape and social history of Utah produced on the centennial of Utah’s statehood.
These screenings mark the second collaboration between members of Balagan and Magic Lantern in the last year, and also extend these film series’ parallel inquiries into site-specific modes of film curation and exhibition, with each screening functioning as an exploration of cinema’s ability to change the ways we experience and inhabit urban spaces. By placing Hutton’s insightful studies of seascapes and waterways in dialogue with Benning’s penetrative analyses of landscape and national politics, “Ship to Shore” seeks not only to explore the lines of communication existing between these two artist’s film practices and contemporary relations between nature and the built environment. It also seeks to strengthen the connections that tie Boston’s experimental film culture to that of Providence.
Organizers:
Balagan was founded in 2000 by filmmakers Jeff Silva and Alla Kovgan in order to provide a meeting place for marginalized film and video works, rarely seen on Boston screens at that time. As of 2011, the series has expanded to include curators Stefan Grabowski and Mariya Nikiforova and continues to present monthly events at the Brattle Theatre. www.balaganfilms.com
Magic Lantern was founded in Providence in 2004 by artists Ben Russell and Carrie Collier in response to the lack of screening opportunities for non-commercial experimental films on the East Coast. It is currently co-curated by Josh Guilford and Colleen Doyle. All Magic Lantern screenings are programmed thematically and are typically held at the Cable Car Cinema & Café, though recent screenings have been coordinated with events such as the Providence French Film Festival and the Museum of Natural History’s exhibition Curiouser: The Secret Lives of Specimens, as well as with Providence-based organizations such as RK Projects.
Programme:
Boston:
- 9/1/75 (James Benning, 1975)
- At Sea (Peter Hutton, 2004-07)
Providence:
- Study of a River (Peter Hutton, 1997)
- Deseret (James Benning, 1994-95)
Screenings begin at 8pm
Admission $5 (by donation)
Rain dates: Boston, 8/30; Providence, 9/1 (original locations)
**PLEASE NOTE: Rain dates for these screenings are Thursday, 8/30 (Boston) and Saturday, 9/1 (Providence), and will be held in the original locations.
